Paradise
by dazae15
Summary: AU New X-men. Laura is found unconsious at the gates of the mansion & when she wakes up she slowly starts to feel more like X-23 then Laura. Can Julian help her before it's to late?
1. Trapped

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or the characters it's associated with._**

**_AN: This is my first Laura/Julian fanfiction. Julian doesn't show up till the third chapter so please be patient. :) Also I got the idea from the song Paradice by Vanessa Carlton_**

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**Xavier Mansion**

Logan carried Laura into the infirmary with Professor Charles Xavier right behind him. He placed her on the examination table. He had found her unconscious out side the mansion's gate looking like she'd been in a fight of some kind. Her clothes were torn, covered in blood but her wounds were healed. Logan stepped away from her so the Professor could do his job.

Wheeling over, Xavier put his hands on either side of her head and closed his eyes to focus. After a few minutes, Xavier's eyes sprung open and he pulled his hands away from Laura's head. "She seems to be trapped in some kind of loop," He told Logan who was hovering with his arms crossed.

Looking rather irritated and trying to control his anger, Logan spoke, "Anyway to knock her out of it?" He didn't understand what was happening to her. Her body was completely healed yet no matter what he or anyone else did she wouldn't wake up.

The Professor shook his head. "I'm not sure, it seems to be psychological but it could also be--"

"Just fix her while I find out who did this to her" Logan told him, his hands clenched in fists. All he wanted to do was beat the sh*t out of whoever did this.

Letting out a sigh, Xavier replied, "I will do my best, but you must remain calm until I can wake her up"

Logan grunted his teeth trying to hold back his anger. He needed to get it out before he snapped. "I'll be in the Danger Room. Be back in a few to check on her." He started for the door. "Anything changes send me a wave"

After watching Logan leave, Xavier returned to Laura entering her mind again. The girl seemed to keep reliving past memories over and over. Now the girl seemed to be huddling in the corner of what looked like a white room with a cot as a bed. "Laura?" He asked walking over to her slowly. She was dressed in a what resembled a hospital gurney. In the real world Xavier was confined to a wheelchair, but in this realm both his legs worked.

Crouched in the corner, Laura had one claw out on her right hand and was digging into her left forearm trying to release the pain. Blood ran down her arm, her claw remaining where it was as she looked up at the man. She didn't say anything, just continued what she was doing.

Xavier crouched down beside her, his brow creased in concern. He reached to take her arm to look at it. Her wound healed and Xavier was perplexed as to why she was doing this to herself. "Why are you hurting yourself?"

She looked at him with a blank stare. No emotion. No nothing behind it. "Bad, must be punished" Laura pulled her arm back to her and began to cut into it again. Xavier watched being increasingly concerned as the young girl made X's on her skin. He tried to stop her again, but his hands went right through her as if he was a ghost.

The scene changed and Xavier was launched into a room were Laura was strapped to a table and a man was standing over her with a big smile on his face. Her claws weren't coated in adamantium yet, they were still bone. "Are you afraid? Do you feel Weapon X?" Xavier raised a brow at the name Weapon X. That was Logan's code name while he was in the program, not Laura's. At this moment he wished he was able to read other people's mind in memories,, beside's Laura's to see why the man was so full of hatred toward the girl.

Watching the memory, Xavier was appalled by what he was seeing. The doctor was removing Laura's claws one by one. They were sharpened, coated, and placed back in. Out of all things, she was awake for the whole thing. Finally when the red head was done Xavier let out the breath he seemed to be holding.

"Dr. Rice, Martin would like to see you if you're done" Rice turned as a man walked in and nodded before turning back to Laura. How could someone be this curl? The scene started to fade away and Xavier hoped he would be able to get Laura out of this loop...fast.

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**AN: What you guys think? Please send me a review/comment so I know if I should work on anything to make it better ^.^ **


	2. Understanding

**__****_Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or the characters it's associated with._**

**_AN: Here's Chapter 2, hope you like it._ **

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Xavier was brought into yet another memory and quickly looked around the room. Laura was strapped to a chair this time, asleep, and a man that he now knew as Dr. Rice was observing her. She looked barley in her teens. The doctor suddenly clipped his pen to the clipboard and punched Laura square in the face waking her up. The Professor winced at the sight knowing that if anyone else had gotten punched that hard, their jaw might have been broken. He wished he could do something to stop it, but he'd already learned it was a memory and couldn't be stopped.

"Nice to see you're awake X" Dr. Zander Rice said with a big smile. Laura gave the man a look that said she wanted to kill him. "I was surprised to find that Dr. Kinney actually thought you and her could get away" She just glared at him, as he seemed to observe her taking notes on the clipboard.

"Where's my mother?" Laura asked her bright green eyes focusing on Rice seeming to be fueled with fire. Xavier could read her thoughts and saw that she was thinking of ways to escape along with coming up with numerous ways to kill the man. Some that shocked Xavier considering how gruesome they were.

Rice stopped what he was doing, looking at the her for a split second taken back by what the little animal had said. He punched her again, harder then before splitting her lip wide open. Blood dripped down the corner of her mouth, the wound healing within seconds. "You don't ever talk to me animal!" His eyes were full of hatred as he continued what he was doing.

A version of Laura's seventeen year old self stepped out of the shadows with her arms crossed. "Why are you still here?" She asked Xavier looking at him with irritation before turning to the scene laid out in front of them and becoming saddened by what she knew was going to happen.

"I'm here to take you home" He saw her face, saw the sadness and it only made him want to end this endless loop even more.

She closed her eyes at the word home, a single tear running down her cheek. "I am home" The answer came out as a whisper that Xavier wasn't entirely sure if he'd heard her right. She faded away again and Xavier was left to watch continue watching the memory unfold.

Laura started to tug at the restraints trying to get free. "Don't bother, they're adamantium" Rice smiled again as he looked at her face. "You're going to regret running away and so is the lovely doctor" Rice was going to make an example out of both of them, and he was convinced it was going to solve one of his problems in the process.

"Leave. Her. Alone!" Laura stressed out each word toward Rice and tried to lunge at him, but the restraints keep her in place.

"We're definitely going to have get Kimura to re-teach you your place, animal" He walked over to the door and left Laura in silence. Xavier walked over to the thirteen year old Laura and tried to undo the metal brackets but his hands went right through, proving yet again this was a memory they were both stuck in.

Not much time passed before the door opened again and Xavier could sense Laura's fear as a woman walked in. Kimura.

"Hello X, nice to see you're back" She said with her usual sinister smile. Laura just remained silent, knowing that if she said anything, Kimura would just make the beating worse then it already was going to be. "Now let's get to you're punishment. You were such a bad little weapon leaving the Facility" The woman took out a knife that was in her belt and began slicing into Laura's arm. "I'm going to give you one slice for every day you were gone and that's just the start,"

Xavier watched in horror till finally he yelled within Laura's mind. **"Laura! You have to stop this!"** He looked up as if he was talking to someone in the sky. The scene flashed forward causing Xavier to get a little dizzy form the rush. He was in the same room but it looked like days had passed by. Laura was covered in blood. So far all her wounds had healed but they hadn't moved her or cleaned her up.

Her healing factor seemed to have slowed down do to the six inch spikes they left in her body attempting to bled her out. Looking at the torture Xavier yelled again. **"LAURA!"** He felt someone next to him and turned to see the older Laura again. "Why do you keep playing these memories?"

"To remind me, who I am. Why I must stay here" She said it in such a matter that made Xavier concerned. All he saw was her getting tortured over and over. He had not seen any reason for her to stay.

He looked at the younger version again seeing the spikes. "I don't understand. There's no reason for you to stay here" Laura closed her eyes again and images quickly flashed before both of them, but he wasn't able to make them out.

She opened her eyes, returning to the original scene they were watching before. "Yes. There is." Laura let out a sigh. "Kept watching. You will understand." Dr. Rice came back in with Kimura and two guards.

"Time to go," Rice snapped his fingers and the guards pointed their guns at Laura while Kimura removed the restraints. Being weak from the loss of blood she found herself unable to fight back. Kimura decided to grab Laura by her neck, taking a hold of a spike that was in her abdomen, and began to twist with a big grin on her face. Grunting her teeth, Laura resisted the urge to scream knowing that if she did the woman would only make it worse. Xavier didn't understand why Laura kept showing him this scene. It didn't make any sense to him at all, but he took a deep breath and continued to follow his student deeper into the memory.

When Kimura was done, she carried Laura out by her hair following Rice to the simulation room. The doctor headed up to the dock to watch the show while Kimura threw Laura into the room. Xavier followed Laura. He stood against a wall not exactly sure what was going to happen. Continuing to watch he felt pain in his heart as Laura was tossed into the room like a rag doll. She could barley move. Laura started removing the spikes now that she was free to do so and Xavier found himself amazed at how well she seemed to handle pain. At least physical pain, he wasn't sure about emotional.

She grinded her teeth together to help avoid the pain. The Professor watched as six spikes were removed and placed down with about four more to go. Her healing factor begin to pick up again which made Xavier smile a little despite the situation. On top of that he heard what he thought to be doors opening and Laura had seemed to hear the same thing. Looking across the room they saw a figure stepping forward seeming to be a woman with a bag over her head and handcuffed.

A few guards were pushing the woman into the room. Once she was in the simulation room, a guard stepped forward and removed the bag. Laura was so shocked and so was Xavier. The woman had a striking resemblance to Laura. Sarah Kinney looked to have been beaten and tortured just like Laura had.

"Mom?" She asked finally speaking the first word this version of Laura had spoken in days since she had arrived. Xavier was confused for a second before complete horror took him over. He knew enough about Laura's past from her stay at the mansion that he had a pretty good idea what was going to happen next. The only thing different about watching the event was now he'd know why she'd done what she did.

Laura moved closer to her mother worried that this might be a trick. As soon as she got close enough she sniffed the air and suddenly everything went dark. Her claws were out and her eyes were bloodshot red. An emotion of panic and then fear ran threw Sarah's body before she felt Laura's claws dig into her abdomen. Xavier turned his head away at the sight but then turned back. It was like watching a horror movie, you don't want to watch but you can't help yourself. Laura yanked her claws back out and Sarah stumbled backwards falling to the ground.

As soon as Sarah was dead, Laura blinked and realized what she had done. "No!" She knelt beside her dying mother, her eyes starting to water as tears started to fall. Xavier walked over to Laura and knelt beside her looking at her mother and then at her. He wished he could comfort her. Why had she attacked her? One minute she was completely normal and the next she was what she was made to be. A weapon. He continued to watch feeling sorry for both Laura and her mother.

"I love you Lau…" Sarah began to say before her final breath was gone.

"No…please…no!" She pleaded holding her mother as she started to sob. Laura had no idea what was happening to her. It was uncontrollable. She just felt so, so…sad? Was that the word? "Please don't go. What's my mission?"

The scene froze and Xavier was joined by the older Laura yet again. "Now do you understand?" She asked looking at her mother's dead body almost about to cry herself.

Xavier stood and looked at Laura. "No. What happened? Why did you attack her?" His brow creased in confusion and longing to understand what had just unfolded.

"It was the trigger scent" She said simply looking down at the ground wiping a tear from her face. "When I smell it, I can't control myself." Laura looked back up at the Professor. "Everything goes dark and when I wake up everyone is dead."

"But why would th-" He began to ask, but Laura answered the question before he could finish.

"The made it so that they could control me better. Make me a better weapon." Laura changed the scene and they were now in what seemed to be a pitch dark room. She walked over and sat on what Xavier could only assume was a seat her mind had constructed. "Anyone they weren't sure I would kill on my own, they exposed to the scent"

Walking over to Laura, he took a seat of his own next to her. "I'm sorry Laura"

"Now you understand." She turned to look at him. "I have to stay here, I belong here. Away from everyone"

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	3. Awake

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of the characters. **

**AN: Julian is in this chapter(yay!) I hope you like it**

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"Laura you don't belong here," Xavier explained. "You didn't mean to kill her, it was beyond you're control," He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "What they did to you was inhuman and you should be with people that care about you, like Logan and myself,"

"What if it happens again?" It had happened after she escaped a second time, with Megan and Debbie. The Facility had found her once and they could find her again.

"Then we'll deal with it then, but right now, you need to wake up" He explained to her getting off his seat. He couldn't force her to leave, she had to make that step her self.

Laura took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She began to speak but was stopped by a sharp pain entering her brain. Falling of the chair, clenching her head with her hands, she screamed in pain. "YOU NEED TO LEAVE!" Laura formed a door and pushed the Professor out as she was consumed by pain.

Xavier's eyes flung open alarmed. He tried to enter her brain again but her metal blocks were back in place. "Laura…" The man said in a low voice. Suddenly, he heard a knock, before the infirmary doors open and a young man walked in.

Julian had been looking for the Professor to help with one of his assignments Ms. Frost had given him. Cessily had said he was in the infirmary. Knocking on the doors, and entering while looking at his class book, Julian hadn't realized the man was in with someone . "Sir I was wondering if you could help me wit-" He stopped mid sentence when he looked up, realizing Laura was on the examination table unconscious.

For a second, he just kind of stared at her due to the surprise and the fact that her clothes were ripped showing her well toned mid drift and part of her black bra. His imagination took off as he wondered what she would look like with nothing on and how delectable she would be in his bed…

Shaking his head he came out of the day dream he was beginning to have. Why did his body always take control when it came to females. He didn't even like Laura that way. Frankly, she scared him. "Uh…what happened sir?" He asked turning his attention to Xavier. Julian didn't know much about Laura but he'd think due to her healing factor she wouldn't be any where hear here.

Wheeling away from Laura, he came around the table and over to Julian. "At the moment that is unclear" He could read Julian's surface thoughts and knew that he was having unpleasant, or rather "pleasant" thoughts about Laura. "May I help you?"

Though he was concerned about Laura, she was on his team, Julian needed to focus on why he came here. "I-I was wondering if you could help me on this assignment Ms. Frost gave me"

Xavier gave a light smile. "I'd be happy to help you Mr. Keller, but I must finish up here first. If you could wait outside or in my office?" Julian nodded, gave one last concern look at Laura and turned to leave, left wondering why she was there.

After Julian left, Xavier turned back to Laura and wondered what he could do to help her. He thought he was reaching her, but then some unknown force seemed to have attack her from within her mind. Letting out a sigh, he wheeled over to the counter and grabbed a blanket to cover her up in to make her more comfortable. Once she was covered, he wheeled out of the lab to help Julian with his assignment. He couldn't do anything more at the moment. They'd just have to wait and see if she'd wake up on her own.

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Laura had gotten Xavier out just in time. She was now on her knees holding her head trying to make the pain stop. Hearing someone approach, she looked up to see a dark figure step forward. "What do you want?"

The figure stepped out of the darkness revealing what looked like herself with an emotionless expression on her face. It was the weapon side of her. X-23. She bent down and picked Laura up by the neck bringing her closer. "You. Gone." Her eyes turned red and tossed Laura like Kimura had done so many other times, making her hit a wall cracking it in half.

Laura slowly picked herself off the ground feeling as if her ribs had been broken. Knowing her own strength they most likely were. Why wasn't she healing? Probably the same reason you're not waking up. She tried her best to stand. Holding her side, she tried to breathe. "I'll leave then" Laura started toward the door she had made for the Professor, hoping it would work for her too.

X-23 stopped her though, delivering a left hook to her jaw splitting her lip wide open. Laura wasn't expecting it and landed hard on the ground again. Wiping the blood from her lip, she looked at it before looking at herself that suddenly extended her claws at her. Now full of anger, Laura stood and extended her own claws.

Fighting herself, she got a few wounds to the face and arms. Nothing to fatal yet. She had given the other her a few wounds of her own. The only problem was, the X-23 her seemed to be able to heal. Laura and X-23 went at it again and they locked claws. In a battle of strength, Laura began to lose do to the injuries she was sustaining. Digging her feet in the ground, she started to get pushed back. X-23 made the final move by blocking Laura's claws with her forearm and jamming her right set of claws into her stomach.

Laura started to stumble backwards as X-23 ripped her claws out. Her hands automatically went to her stomach and when she pulled her hand back to see how much blood there was she started to become dizzy. Falling backward, it was almost in slow motion and she closed her eyes.

Waking with a gasp, Laura's eyes flung open. The blanket that had been placed on her fell off as she sat up. She was breathing hard and was a little disoriented. Sniffing the air, she just about panicked at the lab smell. Was she back at the Facility? She looked around a little more carefully….

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Julian was sitting on the bench outside listening to Xavier explain the assignment when there was a loud bang from within the infirmary. They both turned seeing Laura on the ground. Julian put his book down and ran to enter the lab to help her. Xavier followed right behind him.

Laura didn't acknowledge either of them. She just got up and walked right by them. Her head felt like her own claws were stabbing into it and some annoying buzzing noise wouldn't stop. She just wanted to get out of that lab hating the smell of it.

"I need you to stay here so I can make sure you're better, Laura" Xavier explained as Laura reached the door.

Pausing, she turned her head slightly before saying, "I am fine" and walking out.

Julian was just standing there not knowing what to do. For one, she was still half naked, and another, he didn't understand why Laura wouldn't stay. "Uh, Professor? Is she going to be okay?"

Xavier watched Laura go and let out a sigh. "I don't know Julian, we can only hope" There were only a view that knew how bad it could get if Laura wasn't okay and hopefully it stayed that way.

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**AN: Please Review/Comment, thank you very much.**


	4. Talking

**AN: Okay, so in this chapter this is more Julian and you find out a little more of what happened to Laura. Hope you like it**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of the characters involved.**

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Laura was laying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Sooraya had been out when she returned to her so she was able to hide her torn clothes and get cleaned up before the woman returned. Every time she closed her eyes she had flashes of the fight that had occurred to make her wake up in the lab. Laura vaguely remembered someone following her, of them fighting. She remembered collapsing, crawling her way to the mansion's gate. She snapped out of it hearing someone knock on the door, opening it.

"Mind if I come in kid?" Logan asked closing the door behind him not giving her a time to answer. He took a seat at her desk flipping the chair around so he was straddling it. "How ya feeling?"

She moved to sit on the edge of her bed. "I am fine" Laura knew Logan was concerned about her but she wasn't use to sharing how she felt. It was a sign of weakness and she couldn't be weak, not now.

Logan looked at her knowing she was lying. He could smell a lie just as well as she could, but he wasn't going to press it. She was a lot like him and he knew that when she was ready, she'd talk about it. "Just know if you need anything I'm here"

Laura nodded to him and then watched as he exited. Looking around her room she let out a sigh and feel back on her bed. She was so use to no one caring about her, it felt weird to have people doing it now. Listening to her surroundings, she heard Sooraya coming down the hall. Not wanting to talk to anyone else, she climbed into her bed to go to sleep, or at least pretend till her roommate dosed off.

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Julian sat at his desk trying to get his homework done before class tomorrow. The trouble was his thoughts kept going to Laura. When she had arrived, Julian and his friends had treated her like an outsider. She was strange and very silent. Not to mention creepy. Sometimes what she said in class was just odd. He remembered he'd been so mad the day Ms. Frost had brought her onto his team.

"_Ms. Frost come one! The Hellions are fine without another member. Have her join a different team" _

"_My mind is made up Mr. Keller. Laura will be on your team and I expect you to treat her the same as any of the others, understand?" _She had given him that stern look of hers.

"_Yes, Ms. Frost, I understand"_

Julian shook himself from the memory. Treat her like everyone else on the team. Well, if it had been anyone else in the infirmary he'd go see if they were alright, but were things different because it Laura? He tried to convince himself that it was but the leader in him knew the truth. Tomorrow, he'd go and check on his teammate.

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The next day, Laura waited for her roommate to leave before she got up and headed for the shower. Letting the water roam over her body she closed her eyes and got flashes of what had happened to her. _You're a weapon, an animal. You don't belong here. _Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Sniffing the air, she realized it was Julian. She let out a sigh. She'd forgotten he was in the infirmary when she had left. Turning off the water, she wrapped up in a towel to answer the door.

Julian had passed Sooraya in the hall and she had told him Laura was still sleeping in their room. Arriving at the door, he knocked and waited to see if she'd answer the door. He was trying to figure out what he was going to say when she opened the door dressed only in a towel. Julian's eyes just about shot out of his head and his mouth hung open. Impure thoughts started to go through his head again.

Laura tilted her head to the side looking at him curiously. "Yes?" He looked like he'd never seen a girl in a towel before. Maybe he hadn't cause there was also a bulge starting in his pants.

"Uh.." Why did his hormones always seem to take control? He cleared his throat and tried to compose himself. "Can I talk to you?"

She didn't want to talk to anyone but she knew he'd be persistent. Besides, his talks to her were usually about not messing up his team or making sure she could follow orders.

He waited for her to let him in but when it seemed she wasn't, go to move he added, "Can I come in to talk to you?"

Laura moved to let him in, still clutching the towel wrapped around her. As soon as he was in, she closed the door. Julian walked in trying not to look at her. Every time he looked at her in that towel, he wasn't thinking with his head, well, not the right one anyway. He sat on the bed furthest from the door. "Okay, so.." He looked up at her as she just stood there looking at him in the towel. "Um…could you put some clothes on before we talk?"

She moved over to her barrow were she had placed the outfit she was going to wear for the day and began to remove the towel to get dressed. So many people had seen her naked before it didn't bother her. Julian was just another person to her.

No, no, no! Go in the bathroom or something to get dressed!" Julian screamed closing his eyes so he wouldn't see anything. He was beginning to think the girl was from a different planet.

A little confused due to the way Julian's body reacted to her she gathered up her clothes and headed to the bathroom to get dressed. A minute later she emerged dressed in a pair of low cut dark blue jeans, a black tank top showing off her mid-drift and black boots with a slight heal. Her necklace that Megan had made her hung around her neck. She headed over to her own bed and sat on the edge waiting for him to yell at her like he'd always do.

Julian let out a sigh of relieve that she was now fully dressed. Now he could talk to her a little better then before. "Alright, so I wanted to talk to you about yesterday." He was extremely nervous. _Just talk to her like you would anyone else on your team, like you would talk to Cess. _

Standing she looked down at him. "I do not wish to discuss this,"

"Well, we need to discuss this, you're on my team X," He stood showing that he was taller then her. "I need to know if you're in trouble, I'm you're team leader"

She had another flash of what happened. Of her pinned to the street trying to remove the figure on top of her. _Come one, where's the animal? Where's the X-23 I heard so much about? _There was a big grin on the figure's face but she still couldn't make who it was. "Please leave now"

"No, not until you talk to me! If what ever happened to you happens to someone else and you remaining silent causes them to get hurt, I'm holding you personally responsible!"

Laura's left hand formed into a fist and her claws extended. "Get. Out."

Hearing the girl's claws extended Julian looked down at them. He suddenly became very scared of her. Deciding it would be best to listen to her right now, he headed for the door. Opening he paused, "We're not done here," and he was gone.

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**AN: Please leave a review telling me what you think so far, thank you :)**


	5. Snapped

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of the characters _**

**_AN: Thank you for the comments/reviews _**

**_Here's the next chapter ^.^_**

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As soon as Julian was gone, Laura locked the door and snapped. Her other set of claws came out and she cut lose. Starting with her bed, she lifted it up and slammed it against the wall. _Come on. _She used her claws and slashed them through the wall tearing downward. _Get up and fight! _Laura kicked over her barrow making a load crash. _. _She didn't touch Sooraya's side of the room, just her own.

Julian didn't know anything! If he only knew what she went through to keep the other's safe. _To think, I thought you would be a challenge._ Her memories of what happened were slowly coming back. She just couldn't see the person's face, it was always just a voice, and this creepy grin.

Everyone around Laura heard the commotion she was making. A kid from the dorm next to her actually saw the claws go right through the wall. It wasn't long before there was panic and a crowd outside Laura's dorm along with some running to get help. No one knew what was going on. If Laura was in a fight or what was going on. Scott was the first one to show up on the scene. He listened through the door and heard the same crashes everyone else heard. He just barely pulled himself back in time to avoid a set of claws going through the door.

"I can't get in, the door won't budge," Scott explained as Emma walked up in a rush. He kept pushing on the door trying to break it down, but there was something blocking the other side. Emma closed her eyes and tired to enter Laura's mind to find out what was going on but there were mental blocks in place preventing it.

She let out an annoyed sigh. "I can't access her mind," She turned and looked at the crowd that had formed. "Anyone know what happened?" A lot of the kids shook their head no. Ashida and Cessily who were on their way to class when they saw the crowd looked at each other. Julian had stormed into the cafeteria rather upset. He had told them about the conversation he had had with Laura, about the way she had acted.

Emma looked at them reading their service thoughts. "All of you get to class," _Keller! Come here now! _

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Julian was sitting in class wondering were everyone was when he got an image of where Emma was along with an angry message. He left his things there and hurried to were she and the rest of the instructors were. Out side Laura's dorm. As soon as he showed up, he felt small. Was he in trouble? He hadn't done anything. "What's the matter Ms. Frost?" Julian looked at the door and saw the claw marks. "What happened?" His face was one of curiousness, concern, and somewhere mixed in there was fear.

"That's what I want to want to know," Ms. Frost said looking at him with her arms crossed. There was another loud bang and a set of claws going though the wall nearest to the door. Logan ran up the hall hearing about what was going on. He had been on his way to see Laura when he was mulled by a group of kids in the hall. Listening, he could hear Laura in her room and knew something was seriously wrong. Specially since Emma and Scott were standing outside. His attention went to Julian.

"What did you do!?" Logan knew the kid gave Laura a hard time regularly and it seemed Laura had reached her limit this time.

Julian was truly scared for his life the way Logan looked at him. "I..I didn't do anything!" He had no clue what was going on. "I wanted to know what had happened yesterday, she told me to get out, so I did" Why did they always treat him like the criminal? He wasn't the crazy one.

Logan let out an irritated growl. Of course the kid had to butt his nose in. He moved to look at the door. Trying the handle, he pushed and let out a sigh. They weren't going to like what he had to do. Logan looked at Emma. "Emma, you can put it on my bill," Julian looked confused at his statement before Logan extended a set of claws, making an X on the door before kicking it. The door fell forward making a loud crash. Logan stepped in first looking around before he was followed by the rest of them.

When Julian entered his mouth just about dropped. His conversation with her had caused all this? "What the fu-"

"Quiet" Emma said looking around the room. The whole room was trashed. Claw marks were everywhere. Their attention was brought to the bathroom were they heard running water. Julian was closest and walked quietly, opening the door. His mouth dropped at the sight he saw.

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Laura was fully clothed sitting in the shower letting the cold water run over her. Her right hand had one claw extended burrowing into her left wrist slicing downward The blood ran down her arm, rolling off splashing into the tub. The water helped rinse the blood away but most of it was still there. Stained. Laura kept digging into her arm every time the wound healed. She was trying to get her skin to stop crawling. To get the whole thing to stop. The memories, the hurt, everything.

Logan looked over Julian and saw Laura. "Move!" He ran over to Laura turning off the water with one hand and grabbing her hand with the other one. "Laura, stop," He tried to take her claw hand away from her wrist.

She just looked at him her face emotionless before looking straight ahead again. "No, was bad," Laura used her enhanced strength to pull her claw through her skin despite Logan trying to get her to stop.

Julian couldn't move. He watched the scene and couldn't believe he was responsible for this. Laura had been at the mansion for a few months. Never speaking more then a few words. Following every order he gave her in the danger room. He had no clue she was this messed up.

Emma and Scott came up behind Julian. Scott placed a hand on Julian's shoulder. "Leave now and not a word to anyone" He didn't look at Julian, he kept his eyes on Laura. Julian looked up at him and nodded. He gave one last look at Laura before leaving. That one scene had flipped his world upside down. She was two years younger then him. What had she gone through to make her that way?

Logan looked at his counter part with much concern. Once he heard Julian leave he said, "Both of you can leave too" Emma and Scott looked at each other before looking at Logan.

"Logan I-" She began to say before Logan cut her off.

"Go. I'll take care of this" He didn't want anyone else seeing Laura in this state. "I'll pay for all the damages to the room"

Emma let out a sigh. "If she's a danger to the students," As soon as the words left Emma's mouth Logan's left hand turned into a fist, giving the woman a death glare.

Scott stepped in placing his hands on Emma's shoulders. "Logan can handle it," He knew that Logan wouldn't let the students get harmed and he also knew that the man wasn't going to let anyone force Laura to leave.

After they left Logan turned his attention back to Laura. She was still digging her claw into her skin. She just kept cutting herself. "Alright, kid. Time to snap ya out of this" He slapped her across the face as hard as he could.

* * *

_**AN: In the next chapter Julian and Laura will have another talk. Hopefully it goes better then the last one. **_

_**Please, again let me know what you think ^.^**_


	6. Two Days Later

**_AN: Hey guys!! Sorry it took me so long, school and life kept getting in the way. I don't think the ending is very good but I'll let you guys be the judge._**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or any of the characters. _**

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**Two Days Later…**

"Dude, what is up with you?" Santo asked pausing the videogame he and Julian were playing.

Julian looked up from the game. "Hey! What'd you do that for?"

Santo put down the controller. "Sofia just walked through here and you didn't even say a word"

"She did?" He hadn't even noticed. Usually he was so in tune when a girl walked in the room, especially Sofia. They were kind of almost going out. The two of them had flirted, kissed, but they hadn't gone on a real date or made it official.

"Dude! You didn't even see her?" Santo couldn't believe this. "Are you sick or something?"

Julian put down his controller. "No, I've just had a lot on my mind" Mainly Laura. No one had seen her in two days and he was actually worried about had stopped by her room yesterday and it looked like nothing had happened. There were no claw marks and everything was fixed. When he had asked Sooraya were Laura was, she replied that she was with Logan.

Before Santo could reply Cessily entered the room, standing in the doorway. " Hey, Scott wants all teams to meet in the Danger room for a session," With that Julian got up and followed Cessily. He was so grateful he was saved from having to continue that conversation.

* * *

When they entered the danger room, Julian subconsciously scanned the room for Laura. He wanted to make sure she was okay specially if they were all going to fight. _Why do you care? _She's on my team. Julian kept using that answer to justify his actions.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Santo slapped Julian on the back causing Julian to stumble and loss his breath for a few seconds.

"Yeah, should be great," Julian said coughing slightly.

Scott came through the doors behind them. "Everyone get into their teams." As he talked everyone started to move. Julian and Santo gathered with Kevin and Cessily. Brain was next to join the team, followed by Sooraya. The only one missing was Laura. "Today we are going to pair each team with another. From now on, the opposite team will be you're enemy, or ally, your civilians. Depending on the scenario."

During Scott's speech, the danger room door opened reviling Laura and Logan. "Aw man, I thought they kicked her out after her tantrum," Santo whispered with the slight look of disappointment on his face. Julian followed Santo's eye sight and couldn't help but form a small smile. She was alright.

"Thought we'd join ya Summers" Logan said giving Scott a smile. He then turned to Laura giving her an incline of his head for her to join her team. Laura walked over to them. She looked as if she was on auto pilot. She didn't look at anyone. She just stood next to Cessily not moving another inch, like she was on a mission.

Scott looked at Logan and followed Laura with his eyes till she stopped. After she was settled he turned back to the room of students. "We've already paired your teams," Listening to Scott, Julian didn't take his eyes off Laura. She was so machine like. It was odd. Scott started naming off teams and Julian pulled his attention to him when he mentioned the Hellions. "Hellions will be paired with the New Mutants,"

"What?!?" Julian and Aisha both yelled at the same time.

"There will be no changes in pairs or teammates and training starts tomorrow. Dismissed" With that, Scott turned to Logan. "We need to talk now". He and Logan both left leaving the teams to themselves.

Some of them left the danger room but others stayed excited, while others were upset. Laura stood slightly not knowing what to do. Logan had talked to her about the events that had happened two days ago. She didn't remember most of it, just that she had told Julian to leave. After that, it was a complete blank. Logan had then suggested she stay with him in his quarters for a couple days till things were cleaned up and she felt better . Some how standing here now, she wished she was still there.

After some of the mutants left, Julian started to head toward Laura but was cut off by Aisha. "Just because we're paired up Keller, doesn't mean we're going to be buddy, buddy,"

"I never said it did" He gave her the same distaste look she was giving him.

"And it doesn't mean you're in charge all the time either"

Julian didn't have time for this. He just wasn't in the mood today, he needed to talk to Laura. "Fine, now move before I move you" Aisha moved but Laura wasn't there anymore. "Aw! Why is it every time I go to do something you have to get in the way!" He yelled flipping out on Aisha. Both their powers were fully charged and raring to go now as the conversation carried on.

* * *

Logan and Scott where standing in Emma's office while Emma was sitting at her desk. "Are you sure she's alright now?" Scott asked standing with his arms crossed glaring at Logan with his red sunglasses.

Letting out a sigh, Logan answered, "Yeah, she's got some issues to work out but I'll help her"

"Logan, I know you want her to stay here, but is it a wise decision? What if she loses control again? What if she attacks a student next time?" Emma asked concerned for her students.

"She won't. I told you I'm taking care of it," Logan was becoming irritated.

Emma let out a sigh. "But what about the possibility that you can't. She still hasn't told us who attacked her,"

Grinding his teeth, he clenched his fists. "Because she doesn't know!" He let out a sigh. "Listen, I'll take care of it if it comes to that but understand," Logan moved over to Emma's desk placing his palms on it and leaning forward to look her in the eye. "If anyone else interferes or takes any action toward that girl, I'll take them out myself"

* * *

Laura sat by the window in the Rec room, reading a book called The Art of War. A book her mother use to read to her. Laura had it memorized but she liked reading it all the same, remembering the few moments she got to spend with her mother.

As she read, Laura heard someone's footsteps coming down the hall. Sniffing the air she realized it was Julian. Letting out a breath she hoped he wasn't going to come in the room, but he did. She kept her attention on the book not wanting to draw attention to herself.

Julian walked down the hall searching for Laura. She was one person who was hard to track down. He peered into the Rec room and smiled when he saw she was there. Walking over to the girl he tilted his head to read the over of the book she was reading. "The Art of War? Sounds interesting" Julian sat on the arm of a chair a few inches from Laura looking at her.

Glancing up from her book, she looked at him. Her body tensed expecting him to yell at her for what had happened and demand an explanation like last time. Laura closed her book and turned her attention to him.

"I wanted to uh, apologize for the other day," Julian said nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "I shouldn't have pushed you,"

She didn't know what to say. Julian's apology was surprising considering his previous actions toward her. There were only two people in her life that had ever said sorry to her. Her mother and Dr. Henison. "It is fine"

"Are you okay?" He was trying to think of a nice way to ask about what happened two days ago without upsetting her again.

Laura looked at him puzzlingly. "Yes" Now he was really acting out of character. "I am okay" She continued to look at him like he had three heads.

" Well…that's all I wanted to know" He got up to leave but Laura stopped him.

"Why do you ask?" Laura put her book down to pay attention to Julian.

"Uh?" He turned around to look at the strange girl.

"You are usually mean to me, but today you ask if I am okay. Why?"

Julian just shrugged at her. He wasn't excepting her to question his motives. "I know you've had a rough couple of days. Figured I'd see if you were alright"

"Oh," She said before picking up her book and opening it allowing him to leave.

He looked at her returning to her book and for some reason he felt something but he couldn't describe the feeling. Rubbing the back of his neck his inner self kicked him for what he was about to do. "Would you like to go to dinner with some of the team?" As soon as the words left his mouth he almost wished he could take it back. "We're sort of celebrating the team pairings I guess,"

Laura looked up from the book. Was it a tick? Some sort of test? Her mind raced with possibilities till finally she said "Yes"

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**_AN: What you guys think? Please Review :)_**


	7. Dinner And Violence Go Hand In Hand

**AN: Hey everyone!!! So sorry about not updating sooner, life as been a real handful but I'm hoping the long chapter makes up for it :) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or any of the characters**

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**"What?!?" Brain, David, and Santo yelled at the same time. Julian was buttoning up his dress shirt for dinner when he dropped the news that Laura would be coming with them.

"Why did you invite the weird girl?" Santo asked turning his attention away from the Nintendo DS he was playing. The others agreed with him nodding their heads.

Julian just let out an annoyed sigh as he fumbled with his buttons. He didn't think they would have put up this big of a stink. The girls hadn't. Cessily had been almost jumping for joy at the thought of Laura coming. "I was being nice" All of them just about laughed.

"You nice? Most likely you were scared to death of what she'd do if you didn't" David answered getting the memory of when he first met Laura and learned all of her "talents". He was nervous just sitting in the cafeteria with her after that.

"It's one night guys, and she most likely won't even talk" Julian was praying this night went good but he kept having that image of her in the bathroom and couldn't shake it. _Just once let everything go right tonight._

* * *

Laura sat in the backseat of the car by the window. She stared out watching the other cars go by barley listening to the conversation being carried on in the car by the others. The girls had gone in one car while the boys had taken another. Laura already felt out of place do to the fact she was the only one not wearing an evening dress of some sort. She was in a pair of jeans with her black boots laced up in the front, and a forest green t-shirt with her leather jacket Logan had given her. All in all, she felt out of place.

"What's your take on it Laura?" Cessily asked looking at her with a smile. Laura wasn't paying much attention but due to the training she'd been through she recalled every word that had been spoken in the car. They had been discussing why Scott Summers had put the teams together. If there was some alternative motive.

She didn't really know what to say to the girl. Laura just did what she was told and was trained not to ask questions. Questions got you in trouble, got you punished. The memories of Kimura flash through her brain for a second before she pushed them away. "I don't know" She said honestly.

"Oh come on. Logan hasn't said anything about it to you?" Ashida asked from the front seat. She hated the joining of the teams. Julian was hard enough to talk to yet alone work with, and the members on his team weren't exactly the kind of people she wanted to get involved with. Granted some of them were fine like Cessily and Sooraya, but Santo and Laura. Santo was just as annoying as Julian just with a bigger mouth and Laura, well, she gave Ashida the chills.

"No" Laura was emotionless with her answer. Ashida rolled her eyes. Like she was going to believe that. Logan and Laura seemed like they were tied at the hip. Before anyone could say anything else they pulled into the mutant friendly restaurant that the X-men used for celebrations.

Laura didn't talk much while sitting at the table, just uttering a word or two when asked a question. Occasionally, her eyes would land on Julian and she wondered why he had invited her to this. He had always been rude to her. She was use to this treatment, it was something she grew up with. Him being nice wasn't something she expected from him. She almost felt…NO! Laura wouldn't allow that thought to finish. She couldn't. The moment she let herself feel for anyone they were dead. It'd been proven time and time again. _Your nothing but a soulless animal needing to be put down. You should just give up now before you cause the death of anyone else. _That voice entered her head again with that smiling face. That laughter at her pain. She still couldn't see his face, but she could feel every punch thrown at her, beaten down like she was nothing. Powerless against him.

"How's your pasta Laura?" Julian asked seeing her just stirring her fork in it seeming to zone out. When she didn't answer everyone at the table suddenly became quiet just staring at Laura. Half of them were worried for her, while the other half were worried for themselves. "Laura?" Julian repeated placing a hand on her shoulder to try to get her to wake from what ever trance she was in.

The moment Julian's hand touched her shoulder he was on the floor with a hand to his throat and an arm pulled back ready to punch him. Julian was so stunned he didn't even resister he wasn't in his chair anymore. He just stared into Laura's eyes never seeing them so full of rage and hatred before. Usually there was no emotion behind them. Nothing to indicate what she was thinking, but this time he saw her emotions just like he had seen them when she was in that tub. As quickly as they were filled with rage they were replaced with confusion and guilt. Before anyone could say anything, Laura let go of Julian and ran out of the restaurant.

Still stunned, Julian laid there contemplating what had just happened, till Brain came over and offered him a hand. He took it, glad for the help. "Thanks"

"Told you not to bring the psycho" Santo told Julian gloating and smirking at him. "Though she does know how to lighten up a dinner" He chuckled at them.

"Oh, I hope she's alright," Cessily said in a small voice with a look of concern glancing at the direction where Laura run off. "Are you okay, Julian?" She asked turning her attention toward him as he rubbed his throat looking in the same direction were Laura had gone.

"Yeah…yeah I'm fine" He turned back to the rest of the group trying to look unaffected by the recent events.

"Should someone go after her?" Cessily wasn't friends with Laura but she did worry about the girl. Not much was known about it except for the obvious. No one knew about the girl's past or what she had gone through and no one dared asked.

Ashida gave a small laugh. "Any volunteers to get ripped open to shreds?" Cessily and Sooraya gave her a look.

"Laura is not that bad" Sooraya said defending her roommate. She didn't know much about Laura, but she had heard her talk in her sleep at night and could hear the guilt in her voice while she spoke what seemed like nonsense.

"Oh please! She just attacked Julian, and we all saw what she did to the dorm room" Ashida said raising her voice slightly above normal. "Just ask David how dangerous she is?" At this point they had forgotten they were in a restaurant and most of the other customers were looking at them and the manger was heading toward their table.

David tired to turn invisible but unfortunately it wasn't part of his power. "I'd like to stay out of this" He wanted to stay out of the cross hairs as much as possible. Taking anyone's side on the matter wasn't going to help, it would just cause more problems.

"Is there a problem here?" It was the manger stepping in now. They all looked at him, snapping out of the argument, not even realizing that Julian wasn't with them anymore.

* * *

Laura ran out of the restaurant and hadn't stopped till she knew she was far enough away. She made her way over to what seemed to be a small lake or pond. Thankfully there was no one else around and she was able to sort out what had just happened.

She had attacked Julian.

She had actually attacked him. Granted Laura had thought he was someone else, but that didn't give her an excuse. If she hadn't realized who he was and stopped herself he would be in the hospital or worse…dead.

The thought of Julian dead made her sick. Every time she closed her eyes she saw the look of shock in his eyes when she was about to…

Laura let out a sigh. What was happening to her? _You're becoming the animal you know you are_. She shook her head trying to get that thought out of her head. She could be better then that, better then what they wanted her to be. Logan had told her she could. _You enjoy inflicting pain. In causing the deaths of so many people. Heck, you even enjoyed killing your mother. The adrenaline, the smell of fear in the air, the feel of your claws sliding in them like butter. It's intoxicating, like a drug you can't get enough of. _"NO!" She yelled clutching her head and falling to her knees. Laura couldn't get the thoughts to stop.

Julian had snuck out of the argument with some what of ease. With everyone arguing to themselves he just faded in the background till he was able to slip out. Cessily had been right. Someone did need to go check on Laura and even though he was scared of her he had seen the guilt in her eyes when she had finally realized she had attacked him. It was a good sign, or so he hoped. He'd been flying over the area looking for Laura when he finally saw someone resembling her over by the water.

Landing, he cautiously made his way over to her. She seemed to be in thought again and he didn't want to disturb her but when Julian heard her yell and saw her fall to her knees, he rushed to her side and wrapped his arms around her in a caring embrace. He started to hear her mumble something over and over. Like she was in a trance again but it seemed different this time. "No…I..I didn't mean to…please…I didn't mean to.."

"It's alright," Julian said in a soft voice just holding her trying to reassure her. "I know you didn't" In all his wildest dreams he never thought he'd be doing this. Holding Laura. The image of her in the bathtub with her claw to her skin flashed in his head and his grip on her tighten. If he wasn't here would she had started to do that? Was that how she dealt with what ever pain she held inside? Sitting there with her, he wondered what had caused her to be so bottled up. What had caused her to seem to have no emotion in anything she did. In this moment the girl that scared him half to death seemed more human then he would have ever thought she could have been.

For once in her life, Laura felt safe in the arms of someone who utterly hated her. A guy who on countless occasions had shown distaste for her. Had called her nothing but a clone. Why did he do this then? Why had he come after her when she ran off? Why did he hold her now? Was it some form of pity? Did he feel bad for her? She wanted to ask him but Laura couldn't speak. Julian holding her, made the voices go away. Made her feel more then what she was. Made her forget about everything.

After a few moments Julian let go of Laura. "You better?" He asked looking down at her. She seemed to have relaxed right into him which he didn't mind. In fact it felt rather good. _Did he just think that about Laura? _

"Yeah" Laura said, her voice barley above a whisper. The smell of Julian was peaceful. She couldn't help but feel calm in his arms. _In his arms. _Looking up, she looked into his eyes needing to know if he was really there or if it was her mind playing ticks on her. Panic took her over when she realized it was real. Laura's eyes widened and she pushed Julian away. Not hard just enough to allow her to get up and run away, which she did. She ran as fast as she could till intent on reaching

Julian caught himself from falling over when she pushed him away and he watched as she ran away from him for the second time that night. He let out a sigh not knowing what to do. How did things get so complicated? Usually his thoughts were filled of Sofia but lately they had just been of Laura and holding her like that…

This time, Julian didn't chase after her, he flew himself back to the restaurant hoping that his fellow mutants hadn't cause more of a scene then they already had. He needed to speak to someone about what was going on in his head but who? Talking to Ms. Frost hadn't gotten him anywhere last time. In fact, it actually caused this mess he was in. Santo definitely wasn't a good choice. Given the way he thought about Laura he wouldn't understand. He would just call him insane and to stop hanging with her. Cessily was always a safe choice. She always seemed to listen and gave good advice. A talk with Cessily would come soon, very soon.

* * *

Logan was searching the kitchen for a beer knowing that he had hidden some from the students and staff when he got a familiar scent entering the mansion. Grabbing the cheep beer bottle of Bud in the back hidden behind the cans of soup no one ever touched, not knowing how long they had been there, he headed off into the direction his young clone was going. "How was dinner kid?" He asked catching her on the stairs.

Stopping on the stairs when she heard the voice, she cursed herself for not making sure no one was around before entering. She should have gone to the stables till she knew they were all asleep. Laura turned toward her genetic donor giving him a glare at calling her a kid, she was far from a kid, before descending down the stairs to meet him at the bottom. She didn't say anything, just stood there looking at him not sure on how to answer. "It was fine" The events of the night came rolling through her mind with ease and she was forced to pull out her training to not show any another sign to Logan.

"That why ya sneaking back without any of the others?" He knew something had to have happened. Logan took a step toward her and then got a whiff of it. _Keller. _His sent was all over her. "What did Keller do?" His voice was dark, protective of Laura in a parental manner.

"Nothing" She told him which was the truth. Laura was the one that had attacked Julian. He hadn't done anything wrong.

Logan let in a breath and slowly let it out trying to compose himself. He knew how Julian treated people, especially girls and if he had hurt Laura… "You know I can smell him on you. Did he try something?" It wasn't that he didn't think Laura couldn't handle herself but with the recent events that had happened he didn't want anyone taking advantage of her.

"No, I do not want to talk about this" She told him trying to head back up the stairs but Logan grabbed her arm. She let out a low growl at the contact letting him know he was in dangerous territory not turning to face him. Logan let go and allowed her to continue upstairs to her room. He would be having a talk with Mr. Keller when he got home. Opening his beer he took a swig needing to cool down before he did something he was going to regret.

Getting to her dorm room, she closed the door and closed her eyes remembering the feeling of Julian against her. Of the safety he made her feel. No! She couldn't allow herself to feel for him. She had to remain emotionless. Had to remain closed off. Laura slid down the door pulling her knees to her chest. All the thoughts of Julian, of her past, and of the attack were over whelming. She slowly shrugged off her jacket and placed her arm on her knee. Laura made her other hand into a fist and extended one claw from her hand before she began slicing into her arm. With every cut her thoughts went away and her emotions went back buried beneath were they belonged, where no one would get hurt because of them.

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**AN: Sorry if I didn't get someone's voice right, I tried. Please tell me what you think Review/Comment thank you **


	8. Friendly Chat Anyone?

_**AN: Chapter 8!! Thank you to all who are still reading this story. I will try to post the chapters faster...specially due to the cliffhanger I left. **_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or it's characters**_

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Julian had made it back to the restaurant just has everyone was heading back to the vehicles. "Hey where'd you go Julian?" Brain asked with a curious look.

"Dude! You didn't actually go after the psycho?" If Julian had, Santo was going to start worrying about his friend.

"NO! Of course not. I just needed to get some air, took a quick walk," Julian hoped they would believe him. "Why would I go after the _clone_?" He made his voice venomous as he spat the word clone out sounding like his normal self. Part of him felt bad for pretending not to care and the other part wondered why he felt bad.

Cessily gave him a look like she knew something was up., letting him know they would discuss this more later. They all piled into their own vehicles from before and headed home.

* * *

Logan sat in the kitchen and waited for the rest of the group to get home. He had already downed half of the beer he had hidden hoping it would help, but with his healing factor it barley touched him. Hearing the lot of them pull in, he waited leaning against a counter in the kitchen.

As the lot of them entered the house he listened and watched them laughing as they all accumulated in the entrance to the mansion. Julian was the last one through the door, closing it. He looked distracted like he wasn't listening to what his friends were saying. "Julian you sure you're okay?" Cessily asked looking at her friend with concern. She knew something else had happened, she just didn't know what.

"Uh? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine, just tired" Julian said getting snapped out of his thoughts. He wanted to talk to Cessily but not while everyone else was around. Everyone started for the stairs to go to bed but even though he said he was tired Julian didn't want to sleep yet. "I'm gonna grab a drink, I'll be up in a minute," Julian gave them a small smirk as he headed for the kitchen.

Before Julian even knew what was happening he was being thrown against the closest kitchen wall and had a hand around his neck. His head ricochet off the wall he grunted in pain before looking at who attacked him. "What the hell is your problem?" Julian yelled at the one man he was usually petrified of and should still be.

"What did you do to her?" Logan asked all his rage and anger focused on the kid in front of him. He had to restrain himself from ripping Keller's head off where he stood. "And before you tell me you don't know what I'm talking about, I can smell her on you"

Julian hadn't expected Laura's scent to be on him or for Logan to be like he was now. The man was scary before but this…this was a whole new side to him. A parental side to the loner. "I didn't do anything. I swear" He told Logan looking him straight in the eye so he knew he wasn't lying.

Logan searched for any sign of a lie but couldn't find any. "You make sure it stays that way or I swear you'll be missing something very precious to you," As he said the word precious he looked down indicating what he was talking about. He shoved Julian against the wall one last time, releasing him.

"You're like a father to her?" Julian asked as he watched Logan walk away from him and sit at the counter, opening a fresh beer.

Cracking open his bottle, Logan gave a slight chuckle. "She doesn't consider me as anything but I do consider her my daughter," He took a swig from the bottle before flashing the kid a look. "Keep that in mind Keller"

Julian got the point. Don't look, don't touch. Giving Logan a nod that he understood, he headed over to the fridge to grab a soda. The last thing he needed was Logan coming after him, though he was pretty sure if he tried anything with Laura, Logan would be the least of his problems. Julian shuttered slightly at the thought of what the clone would do to him. Granted, she was smoking hot and his hormones jumped at the thought of being with her in a sexual manner but that's all it was. Animal attraction. It wasn't what he had for Sofia. He pulled up a seat next to Logan and cracked opened his soda before taking a drink from it not wanting to head to his dorm room yet.

* * *

Laura had eventually gotten herself off the floor and cleaned up the blood from her arm and the portion that had ended up on the floor. While cleaning up in the bathroom she heard Sooraya enter the dorm. "Laura? Are you in here?" Even though she didn't want to talk to anyone Laura knew she had to at least let Sooraya know she was home and okay.

Emerging from the bathroom she sensed something was wrong. Sniffing the air she only picked up Sooraya's scent so no one was in the room but she suddenly heard a click of a bullet dropping into place before firing. She quickly grabbed Sooraya pulling her to the floor just as a bullet came zipping through the window barley missing Sooraya. Firing continued, shattering the window. Laura covered Sooraya protecting her from the glass and bullets till the firing stopped. "Do you have any injuries?" Sooraya shook her head no so Laura got up to see who was the shooter, but was caught off guard when a knife came flying at her hitting her in the chest.

A man jumped through the window smiling at Laura, as she pulled the knife out looking at her attacker. Wearing a pair of cargo camouflage pants and a green t-shirt, the man had short blond hair and dark brown eyes. He seemed to be in his mid twenties and had two claw mark scars running down the left side of his face starting at his forehead going down threw his eye and part of his lip stopping at his chin. "Nice to see you again X" Laura's face was one of hatred as she dropped the knife and extended her claws. "Didn't we learned our lesson last time?" He asked shaking his head.

"What do you want?" Laura asked stepping forward to stay in between Sooraya and the man to protect her. If she had to Laura would take the fight outside to protect everyone.

The man smiled before holding up his hand for Laura to see his whole hand turn into the indestructible metal known as adamantium as well as his arm. "You" His fist came flying at Laura who took it square to the jaw. Laura heard the crack and knew it was broken as she tasted blood in her mouth. She would have been worried if she didn't have a healing factor. Anger built up in her as she brought her own fist at the man but he caught it allowing the claws to go straight threw his hand. Confusion came across Laura's face as the man just smiled at her. "I have a wicked case of déjà vu. How bout you?" He asked before punching her across the jaw again and grabbing her by her shirt and throwing her threw the window.

Flying through the air, Laura crashed onto the side roof with a hard thud before she started to roll off it. She attempted to hook her claws into the roof but they just cut right through. Continuing to the edge, Laura extended her claws in her feet and stabbed them into the building just in time before she took a good painful drop to the ground. Taking a deep breathe and let it out closing her eyes. The night she was attacked flashed in her head and she now had a face to go with the figure.

Feeling a hand on her arm she snapped her eyes open to see the man. "You know , I learned something very interesting about you the other day X" He said pulling her still only holding her by the one arm. Laura was dangling in mid air and has he pulled her up to be eye to eye with her, she took her left foot and did a mid air round house kick to the man's arm attempting to cut it off.

"Ahhh!" the man yelled releasing Laura allowing her to fall to the ground. His other hand went to his arm covering it due to the pain. After a second, he removed his hand to look at his arm. It had turned into a mere flesh wound. He looked down at Laura and smiled seeing her slowly move from below.

_That was a smart move_. Laura thought to herself sarcastically. She could feel her bones pop into place as she slowly inched her way into getting up. The fall might have either killed a normal person or at the very least put them in the hospital. To say that it hurt, was putting it mildly.

"Now that wasn't very nice of you clone" The man said picking her up by the back of the neck. "Here, I'm trying to have a conversation and you try to cut of my arm" He let out a sigh before tossing Laura into one of the statues that was on the grounds.

Getting up, she spits blood out of her mouth before turning to face him. "Who are you?"

"I'm surprised you don't remember, but then again they told me you wouldn't." He smiled at her enjoying the confusion on her face. The fact of not knowing why someone was after her. "I was one of your victims little one." Laura's eyes widened only for a second before she went at the man again, but got a metal fist to the gut followed by another punch to the face so hard it had her on her hands and knees. Blood gushing from the left side of her face before it healed leaving the stains. "Name's Kenyon. Michael Kenyon,"

Hearing his name, Laura's mind flashed to when she was thirteen. She was on a job to kill a Lance Kenyon and his family. It was a snowy day in New York, second story apartment, Christmas. Lance was pouring himself a scotch while his wife and youngest son sat reading "The Night Before Christmas". She remembered the smell of the fresh baked sugar cookies and ginger in the house as she listened through the door. Knocking on the door after a moment she was greeted with seventeen year old Michael. "Can I help you?" As soon as the words left Michael's lips Laura had brought him down. Extending her claws she stabbed him in the gut and then took her other set and brought it down his face giving him that scar before carrying on to the others. Even his seven year old brother. The job had been done in less then two minutes.

Snapping out of the memory, Laura blocked Michael from giving her another punch to her face and returned the blow with a kick to his ribs, but he grabbed her leg and spiraled it flipping Laura over yet again. _Get your head in the game! _She was trying, but her head was so screwed up. It was as if something was stopping her from attacking him, from killing him. "What did you do to me?" She asked him trying to keep her distance the best she could.

"What did I do?" Michael just about laughed at her. "You're the one who killed my family. You're the one who gave me this" He gestured to the scar on his face. "I'm just here for payback"

* * *

Everyone in the building heard the gun fire. They were all shocked that the commotion was yet again coming from Sooraya and Laura's room. Logan listened to what was going on for a brief moment before turning to the mutants who had entered the hallway. "Everyone, return to your dorms," Before they all disbanded, Logan pointed to one of them. "You, go get Frost and Cyclops now!" He then turned his attention to Julian. "Keller, you're with me," Julian nodded as his hands and eyes turned green preparing for a fight.

Entering the room, they both looked around only to find Sooraya in the corner. "You okay Sooraya?" Julian asked running to her to make sure she was okay. Logan sniffed the air picking up Laura scent everywhere in the room along with Sooraya's but there was one scent that was unfamiliar. Reaching down Logan picked up the knife that had Laura's blood on it, examining it for any indication of who the attacker was.

"I am fine" Sooraya was shaken up but that was about it. "A man attacked us. He threw Laura out the window" At the mention of the window Logan quickly turned his attention to it. Looking outside he saw two figures on the grounds. A man and Laura fighting.

Anger roared through him and his claws extended. "Keller bring me down there" he growled out almost inhuman. Julian nodded grabbing Logan's arms flying through the window to the grounds.

When they landed Michael had Laura by the throat using her as a shield. "What do we have here?" He asks sarcastically looking at a rather in raged Logan and an angry Julian.

"You're a dead man" Logan growled out.

Michael laughed. "Well, you're not wrong there" He pulled Laura to him and bent his head down to whisper in her ear. "Soldiers fight, civilians die, weapons live on" With those finally words he released Laura and ran as fast as he could.

Logan ran to Laura's side grabbing her in his arms stopping her from falling her to the ground. "You okay kid?"

Laura was only able to respond with a slight nod. Something was happening in her head. It was as if something had been triggered. She started to walk back to the mansion with Logan and Julian on either side of her when her claws suddenly extended. Before anyone could react Laura took her left hand and held Julian in place as she took her right set of claws and stabbed him straight through the abdomen.

* * *

_**AN: I promise to post the next chapter ASAP**_


	9. Caged

******_Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or the characters it's associated with._**

******_AN: Finally A New Post! Sorry for taking so long, I will try to get back in the grove of things and post regularly. _**

Michael returned to the base with a smile on his face. He would soon have his revenge on the soulless creature that took his family. Walking in, he was greeted by Sergeant Finn and Doctor Lynch. "How did the test go?' Lynch asked carrying a clipboard to take notes on the encounter.

"Just like we planned doc," he continued to grin as he spoke crossing his arms. "She kept trying to go for the killing blow but you're programming or whatever worked"

"So she was unable to fight you no matter what?" Finn asked finding that hard to believe. Knowing the girl's track record, X-23 would have fought back with everything she had.

Michael didn't like Finn. It was as if the Sergeant thought the clone was a human with a soul. Someone who could feel remorse and pain. "She got a few hits in but nothing too serious,"

"And you were able to deliver the trigger phrase?" Lynch asked ignoring Finn. If the doc had his way Finn would have been off this project long ago but unfortunately Finn had ties and wanted to be on this project for reasons unknown.

Turning his attention to the doctor, Michael smiled. "Would I have come back if I hadn't?"

"I'll play with her programming a little more before you meet her again" Lynch said making notes on his clipboard with a smile. "Next time she shouldn't be able to hurt you at all and should do everything you tell her,"

* * *

"Julian? Can you hear me?" Julian heard a voice say to him as he slowly opened up his eyes. The figures around him were blurry and he felt like he had died. Maybe he had considering how white everything seemed, but when he went to sit up he felt the pain in his side and winced.

"What happened?" He asked as the figures became clear and he recognized where he was. The Institute's medical lab. There were sighs of relieve and smiling faces as he looked around the room. Cessily, Santo, Brian, Dr. McCoy, but the one face he was looking for wasn't there.

"The psycho girl stabbed you dude," Santo said leaning against the wall on Julian's left while Cessily and Brian took the chairs that were on either side of Julian's bed.

"She's not a psycho" Cessily stated giving Santo a stern look.

Santo just huffed at her. "Are you kidding me? She stabbed him out of nowhere!" Cessily slapped his arm

before turning her attention back to Julian.

At the mention of being stabbed, Julian's mind flashed back to that moment. He remembered walking along side Laura when she had grabbed him around the throat. He hadn't even had time to react when he felt the girl's claws slide through him like he was a piece of meat. "How am I still a live?" Julian knew that when Laura attacked it was always for the killing blow. He shouldn't have been still breathing. "Where's Laura?"

"Logan saved you" Dr. McCoy said casually jumping in to the conversation as he went over to check Julian's vitals. "When Laura stabbed you, he quickly reacted by picking Laura up and throwing her across the grounds making her pull her claws out of you. While they fought, Logan mentally contacted Frost who quickly came followed by a trail of students. Frost ended up knocking Laura out after getting passed some of her mental shields before the battle got too intense and you're friends here helped you to the infirmary" He paused taking some notes on his clipboard.

Hearing a knock at the door, everyone turned their attention to the person carrying a tray. "Is he awake?"

"Sofia!" Julian said in surprise forgetting all about Laura and his recent injury trying to get up, tugging on a few wires making them beep and causing his wound to hurt. He winced grabbing for his stomach. Cessily couldn't help but roll her eyes at Julian. He was anything, but settle when it came to girls he liked. Brain just smiled and shook his head while Santo let out a laugh.

"Calm down Mr. Keller," Dr. McCoy said putting a reassuring hand on Julian's shoulder. "You're going to pull your stitches,"

"I thought you might like some lunch" Sofia said coming into the room with a smile.

"I'm…gonna go check on Laura" Cessily said standing from her chair. "Brian, Santo you coming?" Brian stood from his chair to follow Cessily while Santo just stayed there.

When Brian and Cessily looked at him, he simply replied with, "I'm not going any where near that psycho while she still has claws,"

"You're scared of her? You're made of rock" Brian said giving a slight laugh as he gestured to Santo's appearance.

"I don't care. I'm staying as far away as possible" Santo said crossing his arms over his chest as he gave a quick glance to the floor singling he was staying where he was.

"Which is wise" Dr. McCoy said causing everyone in the room to look at him. "Ms. Kinney is in no position for visitors at the moment"

Dr. McCoy's statement snapped Julian out of his Sofia only world and caused him to come back down to reality. "Wait, what are you talking about? Where's Laura?"

"She's in a holding cell, Mr. Keller,"

* * *

Laura paced in her cell trying to stay in control of herself. Half of her wanted to let the animal take over while the other was fighting to stay human. Emma and Logan were talking to each other a few feet away from her cell so she could hear them but she wasn't paying attention. It was too hard right now due to the second she did she started to lose control. She knew she had to stay in control but it was getting harder every second. "I told you what would happen Logan," Emma told him in her icy tone that she seemed to save for special circumstances.

"Keeping her locked up like this isn't going to help her" Logan pointed out trying to keep his cool. Seeing Laura locked up like this was something he promised himself he'd never let happen again. He was one of the only people who knew of Laura's past and what she went through.

"Helping her isn't my concern. Protecting my students is" She glanced at Laura before turning back to Logan. "She attacked a student Logan, you're lucky all I did was lock her up" Emma turned her back on him and headed back up to the upper levels. "If she's not under control in the next couple of days you know what I have to do" She disappeared leaving Laura and him alone.

It took all of Logan's restraint to just stand there and bite his tongue, but he had to. If he had said the wrong thing to the ice queen he wouldn't be able to help Laura. Turning to her, he watched as she paced back and fourth. "How you feeling kid?" He asked walking up to her cell. Laura eyes narrowed as she heard him speak and she leapt at the bars attempting to grab him but he stepped out of reach just in time. She growled at him, banging her fist against the cell before extending her claws trying to break the bars. "It won't work It's made to hold people like us, adamantium bars,"

"Let me out!" She growled at him retracting her claws and grabbing the bars, shaking them. Her voice sounded inhuman.

"That an't my call kid, you need to calm down," Logan was trying really hard to remain cool and pretend her current state wasn't affecting him, but it was hard. "I can help you"

"I do not want, nor need your help Weapon X!" She growled out in anger shaking the bars again before a sudden wave of pain entered her brain and she fell to her knees clutching her head, closing her eyes. After a second, she opened her eyes and looked up at Logan. "I..I can't control- ahhh" She screamed again feeling another wave of pain.

Laura didn't understand what was happening to her. It was as if the weapon was taking over. The same order kept coming into her head. Kill every mutant.

Watching her, Logan became even more considered. He squatted down so he would be level with Laura. "It's okay, you're gonna be okay," Logan grabbed one of the bars still looking at her, his eyes softening slightly toward her. If it had been just about anyone else in the cage he wouldn't be showing any sign of compassion or anything toward them. Remaining cold as stone, but it was different with the clone. She was apart of him. She'd been through the same stuff as him, worse even. "What's happening?"

Still holding her skull in pain, she found the will power to move to the farthest corner of the cell away from Logan. "You…need to…leave" She said slowly taking short breaths between each word grinding her teeth feeling the urges start to come over her again. Letting out a sigh, he stood and started to leave knowing she wasn't going to talk to him. Her walls were up at full force and she wasn't going to talk now.

Laura closed her eyes and tried to remember what had happened. She remembered fighting the intruder and falling off the roof. She remembered him holding her and whispering something in her ear and then it was as if something snapped, taking over. She had stabbed Julian…the one person besides Logan who seemed like he actually cared or maybe she was just imagining it. Something she wanted to see considering how Julian had treated her in the past, but still, apart of her wished it was true. Some sense of humanity she hung on to. "Is he alive?" Laura asked, her voice lower then a whisper.

Logan was almost at the elevator doors when he heard her finally speak. He turned his head to look at her. The older generation could see she was falling for the boy even if she didn't realize it. Part of him was glad she was starting to feel real human emotions but the parental side wanted to kill the boy, though considering the recent events Keller was most likely staying as far away as possible. "Yeah, he's alive" With that he turned his head back and continued to the upper levels.

Hearing Logan say that, Laura suddenly felt torn. Part of her was angry that he was alive while the other was grateful. _You know you want to kill him. Him and all his friends. _Laura tried to suppress the voice and thoughts but it was hard when everything in her was telling her it was right. She did want to kill him and everyone else around her. It was in her programming, her nature. _You know how good it will feel to just let go. Lose control for just a few minutes. _"Shut up" She told herself staying in the corner with her knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them. Everything around her was quite, nothing to distract her from listening to herself so she just focused on the one thing she could. The way she felt when she realized she had killed her mother. All the pain and hurt she had felt.

* * *

As soon as Dr. McCoy and Sofia left to help with a Danger Room injury, Julian was throwing the covers aside and getting out of his bed. He winced as the action caused him pain but he continued heading for his clothes. "Julian, what are you doing?" Cessily asked giving him a "are you crazy?" look that seemed to mirror the rest of the room.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to go see Laura" Julian said ignoring the pain as he slid on his shirt and started buttoning it up. Next came the shoes which went on a little easier once he remembered to sit down to do it.

Brian watched his friend not liking where his actions where taking him. It was apparent to Brian that Julian's mind was always on Laura lately especially while he slept which if kept up could possibly turn into a crush if it hadn't already. Brian was trying his hardest not to let it get that far. "Dr. McCoy said she couldn't have visitors,"

Julian turned toward the door facing his friends. "Does it look like I care?"

"What is it with this girl?" Brain asked seeing the look of determination on his friend's face. "She almost killed you less then twenty-four hours ago and you want to go see if she's okay? Has she got you brainwashed or something?"

"No! I'm doing my job as squad leader!" He didn't know if that was actually true, but he was hoping that it was considering the alternative of liking Laura scared him more then anything. "Now get out of my way before I move you" Julian's eyes began to glow green as he looked at Brian.

Brian glared at him at first not seeming to be backing down, but then thought better against it. There was no point in fighting over what Julian's true motives were and he wouldn't make it down to the basement without Professor Logan or Headmaster Frost knowing in the first place. "Fine," He stepped aside and so did everyone else clearing a path for Julian to walk out the door.

After about an hour of sneaking around the mansion, making sure no one saw him he made it to the sub levels. He'd never been further down then the Danger room so as the elevator continued to count floors, Julian's anxiety spiked ever so slightly. His rational side was starting to kick in, and he was starting to rethink his current path, but before he could think any more the doors opened.

"Relax, it's just Laura" He told himself out loud has he stepped out of the elevator. _The girl who just almost killed you not even twenty-four hours ago_. Julian tried to push that thought aside as he headed down the corridor toward the holding cells. It was oddly quiet as he made his decent, and Julian found it slightly unsettling. Drawing closer to Laura's cell he at first thought it only had food and water inside, but upon becoming more observing he saw a figure crouched in the corner. "Laura? It's me, Julian,"

She had heard him coming before he stepped off the elevator and as soon as she caught his scent, her claws extended wanting to slice him open. Her body and part of her mind wanted to attack him and enjoy in the satisfaction of the kill, but she fought against it. Laura did the only thing she could think of in that second. She stabbed herself in the abdomen in an attempt to cause her to focus on the pain and not on Julian. "Get. Out. " She managed to get out continuing to stop herself from lunching at the bars.

"I know I'm not suppose to be down here, but I wanted to see if you're okay," He said moving closer to the cage. Moving with caution, he moved closer to the cage, placing his hands on the bars. Laura didn't move or say a word. "Laura?" Julian looked closer into her prison, watching her. Nothing but silence. Becoming annoyed and frustrated he said, "Can you at least look at me? I mean you were the one to stab me for no reason!" His normal Julian attitude was showing through. With that outburst, Julian had to jump back quickly as Laura lunged at the bars, aiming for Julian. Her eyes were red, full of rage and her teeth were barred like a wild animal. Claws out, Julian could see blood dripping from a set of them along with a crimson stain on her shirt.

Stepping away from the bars, Laura watched Julian like a predator. _Kill him. Stab your claws right into him. Tare him open and watch the life drain from his eyes. She kept her eyes on him pacing back and fourth within the cell. There was only a tiny piece of her that was holding on to control and that was slowly slipping away. _

"What's wrong with you?" He asked more to himself then to her. He had never seen this side of the clone before. She was normally so quiet, zombie like. Julian was scared of her before when she didn't show any sign of emotion or caring, but he would take that over what he was seeing now.

"Hellion! What are you doing down here?" Emma asked hurrying down the corridor with Professor Xavier in tow. "This is a restricted area, especially to you!" As she got closer, she saw the look on Julian's face who hadn't taken his eyes off of the girl in the cage and brought her gaze to Laura. Seeing the state she was in Emma almost gasped at shock, but instead looked at Xavier. "Charles, you now see what I was talking about. We need to stop her before she threatens anyone else," Emma wasn't treating Laura like a victim but a threat that needed to be taken care of.

Charles wheeled around to the front of the cage to get a better look at Laura. He let out a sigh when he saw her pacing not taking her eyes off of Julian. Letting out a sigh he replied, "I agree with you on helping her Emma, but you must remember she is a student here and will be treated as such," With that, he put his fingers to his temple and focused on Laura. Getting into her mind was difficult, but not impossible. Last time he had gotten in, he had left a short cut for himself, just in case he had to do it again. After a few moments, Laura swayed a little, fighting the intrusion till finally she fell backward, unconscious, and her claws retracted.

"What the hell is wrong with her!" Julian yelled at both of his instructors pointing at the cage and Laura entering a panic state at what he had just saw. "It's like she's insane or something!"

"Mr. Keller, you need to relax. I will explain momentarily, but at the present you need to go with Ms. Frost while I take care of Ms. Kinney. " Xavier said to him very calmly. With that Emma lead Julian back to the elevators and up to the main floors while Xavier put his attention on Laura.


	10. Dreams and Memories

**AN: **

**1. Sorry it took so long, had to break my writer's block down with a chisel. **

**2. This chapter as the first "sex scene" I've ever written so I'm apologizing a head of time if I didn't get the wording right.**

** 3. I want to thank everyone that is still reading this story and putting up with my insanely long writers block.**

* * *

Walking to the elevator Julian didn't say a word to Ms. Frost. His mind kept repeating the image of Laura with that crazy look on her face lunging at the bars to attack him. _What was wrong with her? _One minute she was completely fine and the next she went completely psycho on him. When the elevator doors opened and they walked in, he finally spoke up needing answers. "Ms Frost, what the hell is wrong with her?" He asked as the doors closed, starting to take them back up to the upper levels.

Emma just kept facing toward the doors not even turning to look at him. "It's not your concern,"

"The hell it isn't!" Julian yelled at her wincing slightly at the pain that shot to his abdomen. "You put her on my team, you made her my responsibility!"

"Keep your voice down," She told him calmly keeping her attention straight ahead as she secretly probed his mind. She needed to see how deep Laura had effected him within his head.

"No! Tell me what is wrong with her!" Julian wasn't in the mood to be given the runaround specially when Laura kept targeting him. Twice now, she had come at him. "I have a right to know,"

Seeing his mind, she was slightly surprised by the section of memories containing Laura. It was developing in a similar pattern to the one of Sofia. That was not comforting to Emma considering she knew what his feelings for Winddancer where.

Deciding to face Julian, Emma took a moment just to look at him. She couldn't tell him the truth. That she didn't know what was going on with the clone. All she knew was that Laura was a danger to them and if it came to it, she'd put a stop to it. Just like she was going to put a stop to whatever feelings were starting between Hellion and her. Weather the others approved of it or not. She smiled at Julian before placing a hand on his cheek as if she was going to talk to him. Once she made physical contact with him however, she began to alter his memories of Laura putting him in a zombie like state for the time being.

* * *

Xavier looked at Laura not knowing what to do. He had been able to probe her mind, giving him knowledge of some sort of trigger that had been in place for probably years that had just been recently activated. Only problem was he had no way of knowing what the trigger was. He could put mental blocks in place and help her through whatever she was going through slowly, but that wouldn't prevent the trigger from being activated. Making her forget about the events could also have dire consequences on her mind and well-being. He was at a loss at what was the right course of action. "How do I help you?" Xavier asked Laura rhetorically. He left her in the cell to consult his books and see if Logan had any ideas on what to do.

* * *

Laura could hear the ocean waves crashing beside her as she walked the shore. Her feet where bare allowing her to feel the sand and water touch her skin. The salty water air of the ocean filled her senses and she felt relaxed here. Nothing bad could happen and nothing could harm her. She was safe. "You're never safe X," She turned her head to see a man in his late twenties walking beside her wearing hospital scrubs and lab coat. His dark black hair wasn't shaggy, but wasn't cut too short either and his eyes were a pretty shade of blue that Laura had always found calming to look at while growing up. "Isn't that what Ms. Kinney and I taught you?"

"Dr. Henison?" She asked receiving a smile in response. About to speak again, Laura was stopped when a hole suddenly opened up under her feet causing her to fall.

Falling through the Earth, she landed on a blue sheeted bed with a white comforter on it. She looked around the room more confused then she was, realizing she was in someone's bedroom. Laura had never been in a place like this. Becoming defensive, she noticed the handle on the door across the room begin to open. Preparing for the enemy, she made a fist ready to extend her claws when she was taken back by who entered the room.

Julian smiled at Laura as he closed the door behind him. Laura was so shocked, she was surprised her jaw wasn't hanging open. Julian wasn't wearing anything, but a pair of dark denim jeans as he made his way over to the bed. His hard rock abs didn't seem real to Laura making her want to touch them just to make sure, but she was to scared to move at the moment. Placing his hands on the white comforter, he crawled closer to Laura stopping right in front of her, their faces only inches away from each other.

"Am I dreaming?" Laura asked right before Julian leaned in causing their lips to touch. _Yes. This was a dream._ At first, every nerve in Laura's body tensed up scared of what was going to happen, but she soon relaxed beginning to enjoy this new sensation. All her senses were alive as he forced her mouth open deepening the kiss. She had never experienced this before.

When she had been a prostitute, she had to have sex with her clients when they asked, but they had never kissed. It wasn't allowed, due to it being too personal. Julian moved closer to her, forcing her to lean back onto the bed. His hands moved to remove her shirt causing her to lift her hands over her head, making them break from the kiss. Tossing the shirt aside, Laura's breasts were only covered by a black bra, causing Julian to smile more at her, being able to actually see the skin underneath the shirt and explore her perfect toned body excited him. His hands began to roam over her skin as he kissed her lips before making his way to her neck.

Every time his lips touched her skin, a new wave of pleasure went through her leaving her speechless. She ran her hands through his dark hair as he continued down to her chest. He stopped and looked up, their eyes locking. He was asking for permission, which no one had done with her before. She gave a small nod before, she felt him remove the strips to her bra continuing to kiss her skin as he did. One of Julian's hands reached behind her back undoing the clasp before he tossed the small item of clothing aside and began massaging one of her breasts while capturing the other in his mouth. A small gasp escaped Laura's lips at how good it felt as she felt her body continue to heat up. She brought her hands down his arms to his chest exploring his abs as she kept looking at him work on her.

Laura became alarmed though when she felt Julian stop moving and he looked at her. He had an expression of pain on his face, causing her to become concerned. "What is wrong?" She followed his line of sight when he looked down at his abdomen seeing blood drip from it and her claws plunged inside. "…no" She said in a low voice as she retracted her claws. His hands went to his abdomen and blood poured out covering his hands. Julian stumbled off the bed as he began to cough up blood. Laura went to help him but was restrained when two people grabbed her arms holding her back. She was fully clothed again and the scene changed to her being in a Facility cell with Julian watching him lye on the floor dying.

No matter how hard she tried, Laura couldn't get to him. Rice and Kimura held her in place while she could see her mother and Dr. Hension on their knees, handcuffed with guards pointing AK-47s at them ready to fire on command. "Everyone you touch dies," A snarky voice belonging to Rice whispered into her ear. "When will you just accept you're just a weapon. All you're good for is to kill when we say," Releasing her, she ran to Julian as tears began to fall from her eyes as she tried to stop the bleeding. Laura was forced to watch as the live drained out of Julian leaving behind an empty body just as Rice gave the order to kill the two onlookers. Not knowing what to do, she screamed into the air causing herself to wake up, back in her cell at the mansion.

* * *

Looking around, she realized she was in the basement of the mansion. Her clothes were bloody and her head was pounding. Clutching her head as she went to stand, she noticed Logan sitting outside her cell in a steal chair. "Morning kid," He greeted her with his arms crossed over his chest looking at her intently. "Feelin better?"

"Did anyone get hurt?" There were gaps in her memory which usually meant she lost control and went into a blind rage. Normally, she'd wake up around multiple dead bodies, but considering she was locked in a cell, with no restraints and under the guard of only Logan she figured she hadn't killed anyone, or she hoped she hadn't.

Standing from the chair, he walked over to a wall closest to the cell leaning against it peering in at her. "Keller needed a few stitches and will have a scar. Other then that, no" He noticed Laura's expressions didn't change, but her heartbeat and scent did in a matter of seconds when mentioning the boy. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

Thinking, Laura tried to remember, but she couldn't. It was as if she had been exposed to the trigger scent, but she knew the Michael guy hadn't had any on him or he would have used it before they had gotten onto the roof. "I do not know. Last thing I remember was the man holding me unable to get free of him with Julian and you running toward us,"

Logan's brow raised in surprise. This meant she didn't have any memory of the conversation they had when she had first gotten in the cell and had no knowledge of when she tried to attack Julian the second time. Before he had time to ask another question he heard the downstairs elevator doors open. Turning Logan watched as Xavier wheeled over to them. "Good morning Laura, I see we're feeling better,"

"She doesn't remember anything about the last few days," Logan told Xavier before looking back at Laura who had a confused look on her face.

"Days?"

Xavier wheeled closer to Laura's cell to talk to her. "Yes, Laura. You've been unconscious for three days. Logan and I have been taking shifts to watch you. How do you feel?"

Laura didn't know how to answer that. She was missing gasps in her memory...again and she had a wicked bad headache that she couldn't shake. Felt like she needed a whole bottle of Excedrin just to get rid of it. "I require some headache medication," She stated not knowing anything else to be wrong. Logan nodded to her and started heading off to grab some for her.

"Laura, are you positive you don't remember anything about the last couple of days?" Xavier asked watching as Laura began to stretch her limps. If she couldn't, it meant that the trigger was indeed active and someone was using it against them, was using her against them. Question was who and for what.

Shaking her head no, she walked up to the bars placing a hand on them, looking at the professor. "Am I allowed out of here?" She hated cells. Hated being confined, but she would if she had to, to keep everyone safe. Laura didn't want to hurt anyone else. If being locked in here was better for everyone else she would stay, no matter how much it pained her and reminded her of her old living condition.

Xavier knew enough about Laura from Logan and from taking the walk inside her head to know how much being in the cell killed her. He gave her a reassuring smile trying to show her everything was going to be okay. "When Logan gets back, I shall talk to Ms. Frost and talk to her about your release," Laura knew what that meant. She knew Frost didn't like her and would of had her removed awhile ago if it hadn't been for Logan. The woman had told her Laura's first night here when Frost had made her see her mother, that if anything happened to her students due to her, there would be consequences. And considering she had hurt Julian, Frost's favorite student, her days were numbered.

She put her head down letting out a sigh, before she come off the bars and headed to the far wall of the cell, sitting down with her knees pulled to her chest, arms resting upon them. She closed her eyes, trying to relax and get rid of her headache when she heard Logan's footsteps coming her way with medicine. Letting out a breath as he tossed her the whole bottle through the bars, she looked at it before opening the top and just about chugging down the whole thing. Bad thing about medicine was it took a lot to effect people with healing abilities such as Laura and Logan. It was the same with alcohol which could either be a good thing or a bad depending on the day. "I shall go talk to Emma now," Xavier told Logan as he began to wheel back to the elevators.

When they were alone, Logan moved to sit on the floor beside the cell with a look of concern on his face at his clone instead of sitting in the chair. He hated seeing her in the cell, confined, when he knew how much of her life was spent in a room about that size. Looking at her, she looked more like her mother then like him, but when looking into her bright green eyes, he could see the pieces of him. It was odd. He had never asked for her. Never even had sex with her mother or even met the woman, but here he was look at a young woman who was apart of him. "Do you think I am a danger to the others?" He heard her ask from the cell as she looked up at him. Out of all the questions in the world, she could have asked him, he was not expecting that one, though he should have been.

* * *

**AN: Please review, working on the next part right now. Sorry for the shortness, hoping the next chapter will be longer. Thank you again to everyone that's reading this. **


	11. Double Agent Finn

After a few days, Frost finally agreed to give Laura one more try on a trial bases only. Laura was allowed out of her cell during the day and was forced back at night. Logan was her permanent escort anywhere she went to help prevent any incidents, which she didn't mind so much considering she understood Frost's concern and didn't want to hurt anyone either, but it still bothered her that she couldn't be alone. Today was the first day she was let out of the cage and got to rejoin the other students with Logan either right behind her watching closely or right beside her talking about random things that didn't concern her. She watched the other students as she walked to her first class, realizing that they were all making it a point to stay away from her. _They should be. _Laura knew she was a danger to others before she even showed up here. It was why she hadn't agreed sooner to come to the mansion.

Entering her first class of the day, she sat in the second to last row, closest to the exit, wanting a quick getaway if needed. Logan nodded to her as he stood in the back of the class room with his back against the wall and his arms across his chest watching every one that was already in the class, along with everyone entering. She grabbed her book she needed for the class and opened it, going to the appropriate page when she stopped mid flip at who's sent she smelt. Julian. He walked into the room two minutes later laughing with Santo. Seeing him triggered an image of him smiling at her…. topless, but it was quickly replaced with an image of him dead, causing her to believe it was her way of telling her to stay away from him. He didn't even look at Laura as they sat down one row up from her, in the middle. She looked back at Logan who shook his head no at her going to talk to him.

"They let the psycho rejoin us, are they nuts?" Santo whispered to Julian glazing slightly back at Laura before turning back to his friend. "You barely got away with your life and she's allowed back in classes,"

"I know right? I should charge her with attempted murder or something," They both laughed before Professor Drake called everyone's attention to the front of the class. As the professor began to talk though, he causally turned to look back at Laura who was writing in her notebook. Looking at her though, he didn't see the villain he knew he should see. Everyone told him to be afraid of her, even his own head, but there was something he couldn't place that made her seem like a victim when he looked at her. He got a sudden image of her crying in his arms, but he pushed it away, knowing it wasn't real, it couldn't be real. She wasn't even human. She didn't have emotions, she just killed. He turned his attention back to the class.

Laura could hear them talking, but couldn't understand the emotions she was feeling about Julian talking about her. It was a feeling of being sick inside, but she knew she wasn't. She tried to ignore it and ignore them as she listened to Drake's lesson, but she saw that her mind kept going back to Julian every time he moved a muscle when his scent would be carried back to her. Why did she have such a fascination with him?

The bell rang, causing everyone to collect there books. Logan came off the wall and headed over to Laura. "You alright kid?" She didn't move,keeping her head down as the others walked by her, even Drake left the classroom giving a respectful nod to Logan as he did, before she finally looked at Logan.

"You never answered me before," She stated to Logan who ended up sitting on the nearest desk raising an eyebrow to her. "Do you think I am a danger to others?"

Logan wasn't a people person or a father. He didn't know how to answer this question laid out in front of him. "Flat out answer kid, yea, I do, but we all are. You, just more then others from how you were raised," He saw a quick change in her emotions before she masked it again. "I've told ya before, it wasn't your fault, you didn't have a choice,"

Laura listened to his words trying to keep herself under control. "You mean, I don't have a choice," She looked up at him, locking eyes with Logan. "They are still using me, which is why I have a personal chaperone," She had heard Megan use the word chaperone before. Never found a use for the word till now.

"Laura, yo-" He was cut off when Laura threw up a hand, grabbing her things and started for the door like a normal teenager. Another action she learned from Megan. Logan wasn't having it though. He reached out grabbing her by the arm, forcing her to stop. "Hey! You are being guarded due to Frost's orders, not mine. It's the only way I could get you out of that cage!" Laura pulled her arm out of his grip.

"You do not understand," She said fixing her bag on her shoulder, an uncontrollable surge of frustration rising in her. "I remember the excitement before the mission. The intoxicating rush I got as my claws slipped into them. I didn't feel remorse or anything toward them. It was my mission and I enjoyed it. Sarah does not own those feelings, I do," Every mission she wasn't under the trigger scent that she completed was her fault. She killed men, women and children with out a second thought. "I had a choice when it came to the ones I wasn't personally involved with. I chose to kill them. Part of me still wants that feeling," She admitted to him and to herself.

"Kid, I-" Logan stopped not knowing what to say to her. He understood the adrenaline someone got from a kill, but he didn't get enjoyment out of it. Just another way that place had messed her up. He went to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but Laura dodged it and went out the door. She didn't want to be there. She didn't want to be under twenty four hour guard. She just wanted to leave, to get away before anything else happened.

* * *

Cessily was heading to meet up with the others in the cafe when she saw Laura head out to the garden in a hurry. It was the first time she'd seen her fellow classmate after the incident with Julian and even though, Ms. Frost and everyone else told her to stay away from Laura she couldn't. Cessily knew something was and wasn't the type of person to back down from a friend. She had to talk to her fellow mutant and find out what was wrong. Deciding to change her course, she went after her.

Laura was so frustrated with everything she hadn't noticed where she was going, or even realized she had made it out of the mansion and was in the garden area till she smelt all the flowers. The smell had snapped her out of whatever mental zone she'd been in and she was able to breathe again. Sitting on the grass in front of one of the benches she leaned her back against it feeling the force against her upper back as she looked up at the clouded sky. It was going to rain in a few hours, which was fine by her. She enjoyed the rain. The smell was so fresh and clean. It allowed her to block out everything else around her and just listen to the sound of the drops falling from the sky and the thunder roaring in the distance. Many people were afraid of thunderstorms, but she learned to enjoy them.

It didn't take long for Cessily to find Laura sitting in the middle of the garden, but she wasn't expecting to see the young woman looking so peaceful. For a moment she thought about leaving her there to enjoy the quietness, but if she did, Cessily wasn't sure she'd get another chance to talk to Laura. At least not alone. Making her mind up quickly, the silver covered mutant started toward Laura quicker then she had been before in an attempt to not back down.

As much as Laura didn't want to acknowledge the fact someone was coming toward her, she heard footsteps and knew she couldn't ignore them. Whoever it was, was probably coming to talk to her. At first, she thought it was Logan, but she quickly dismissed that theory when she acquired the scent of a female. "Hey Laura, mind if I join you?" Looking over she saw Cessily; aka Mercery looking down at her with a smile on her face. Laura only gave a somewhat shrug motion showing she didn't care, before looking straight in front of her at nothing in particular. She wasn't in the mood to talk nor be around anyone for that matter, but Cessily had never given her a reason to dismiss her. She'd done nothing, but try to help her like Megan had done. _Look what happened to her._

Sitting down, Cessily knew right away that Laura wanted to be alone, but she also knew how hard it was for her to talk to someone. Leaving her alone wasn't going to help the young loner to open up. They sat there, in silence for about a half-hour till she finally spoke to Laura again. "Do you want to talk about it?" She glanced over, looking for some form of reaction. A simple "no" was all Laura said causing Cessily to turn back to looking at nothing again, before back at Laura. "Are you sure? Cause sometimes, talking can help," Still nothing. "Especially to a friend,"

_Keep them safe. Distant _"I do not have any friends," Friends and family ended dead. As much as she wished she could have that connection, she couldn't. Not after what had happened with Julian. Not after what had happened with Megan and Debbie. Logan was the only one that was "safe" around her and even that was dangerous. She'd almost killed him once before. Rice was right. She hurt everyone she touched.

Cessily wasn't thrown off by much, but Laura's words had done the trick."Yes you do" She said with a sense of conviction in her voice. "I'm your friend, Sooraya, Julian-"

"I almost killed him" Laura interjected showing the first sign of some form of emotion since Cessily had sat down. "I would have if..." The memory of stabbing Julian was coming back and she could feel her claws slide into him, along with seeing the surprise on his face. It was all so real, yet she still didn't know why she had done it.

"Laura, that was an accident," She could see a form of guilt on Laura's face which meant she didn't mean to stab him. Besides, Cessily was one of the only ones that realized Laura and Julian had a thing for each other, even if they didn't know it themselves. She knew Laura wouldn't intentionally hurt Julian considering how much she tried to protect him. "I know you didn't mean to hurt him,"

In that moment, Laura felt that feeling of frustration again. She knew the feeling but she was expressing it more often then before along with the feeling of anger and rage. Feelings she needed to keep buried. _Weapons don't feel anything, they just do what they are told_. "You don't know me Cessily," Her bright green eyes looked at the woman that was trying to make her feel better. "No one here does,"

"We would if you just talked to us," Whenever Cessily looked at Laura, she saw someone that was always hiding. Trying to keep people away, be who others wanted her to be. She didn't know of anyone that Laura had actually been herself around. The girl was even guarded around Logan, the one person that could probably understand Laura the most. "But you push us away, keeping everything bottled up inside,"

Laura didn't want to listen to this. She kept everyone away to keep them safe. Did they not understand that? Opening up and telling them about her past or what she was going through wasn't going to help anybody. She stood up to leave, but Cessily stood with her, not wanting to let Laura go. "You need to let someone in Laura, or you're going to turn into the thing you hate the most,"

She paused for a second as she stared back at her fellow mutant, letting Cessliy's words sink in, before finally pushing past her and heading back into the mansion. Nothing felt right around her. Everything was so messed up in her head that she wasn't even sure she could talk to anyone. There was something though that seemed to help ease the pain a little and get it out.

Laura headed into the first bathroom she could find. Once she made sure no one else was in there, she locked the door and headed over to the sink. Looking in the mirror, she didn't recognize the person staring back, but that was normal for her. Taking in a breath and letting it out, she looked down at her hands and arms before extending one claw on her left hand. She rotated her right wrist slightly, before taking her metal covered claw and dragging it down her skin. The blood ran down her forearm into the sink forming a crimson design Laura didn't pay attention to. She focused on the pain and hurt she had felt as she continued to draw on her skin. No one understood her or knew what she was going through.

* * *

Secret Base- Location: Unknown

Dr. Lynch was working on the new programing for their weapon when he heard Finn clear his throat behind him. A smile crept across his face at the uncomfortable solider. "Can I help you sergeant?" He didn't make any other acknowledgment that Finn was there as the doctor continued typing.

"I was wondering if you could shed some light on what you're actually doing to the girl,"

Lynch stopped what he was doing and turned his chair around to look at the curious man. "I assume you mean X-23, and why do you care so much?" Finn was showing more interest in the girl then Lynch deemed normal for the guy. Ever since he'd learned of the X-23 project he'd been over the doctor's shoulder, commenting with a conscience and asking questions that didn't need to be asked.

Watching the doctor, Finn could tell he was being tested. The doctor always had that slight gleam in his eye whenever he was curious of what his "subject" would do next. It was why Lynch was so interested in Kenyon and the girl. Putting the two against each other was like watching two starving rats fight over a slice of cheese to him. All he needed was a soft drink and a bag of popcorn. "I just don't understand what you did to her, or to Kenyon for that matter,"

"And that bothers you, doesn't it?" Lynch smiled at Finn, reminding the army man of an old comic cover of the Joker. Scary with a sense of something behind it.

"To be honest, yes. I don't understand what you plan to do with the two," He crossed his arms over his chest trying to show he wasn't scared by the doctor's demeanor. "From what I've seen so far, it's like you're trying to get the girl to go crazy,"

Finn got a chill down his spine when the doctor started laughing. "I'm not _trying_ anything. X-23 is a killing machine, the perfect weapon. Once the phony human mentality goes away, you'll see that,"

"Wait, human mentality? You're trying to get rid of the human side of her?" The doctor was nuts. The girl was human. There was no getting rid of those feelings.

"There's that word again," He turned the chair to return to his work. "I'm not trying anything, I'm succeeding "

Hearing the typing sounds Finn suddenly became extremely upset. Not thinking, he went over to the doctor, turned his chair around and picked the doctor up by his lab coat lifting the mad man's feet off the ground. "You're toying with someone's life here, a teenager's, and you just sit here with that smile on your face!"

Lynch was still grinning from ear to ear as he looked down at the upset solider. "That's your problem Finn, you think X-23's human, just like all those freaks at that school,"

Resisting the urge to beat the crap out of the man, he turned his head when he heard Kenyon's voice. "There a problem doc?" He asked standing in the doorway with his arms crossed leaning against the frame. Finn put the doctor down knowing that with one word his "body guard" would rip him in half.

"No, no problem," Lynch fixed his jacket still smiling. "The sergeant was just leaving," With that Finn looked between the two, before exiting the room leaving them to whatever they had plan. He needed to let _him_ know before it was too late.

Making sure the doctor's pet wasn't following him, Finn headed to the far end of the underground base where he knew no one visited. Once he double checked no one was around he took out his cellphone and hit speed dial. "Hey, it's me," He listened for a moment on the other line before continuing. "Yeah, we've got a problem. They're trying to reprogram her somehow,"

The other line went silent again and Finn could hear a sigh through the phone. "They activated failsafe 8-2-06," The voice told Finn which only caused him more confusion.

"What the hell is that?"

"It's a program that was installed after X-23's first escape with Dr. Kinney. The doctor in charge of installing it left before it could be finished though,"

"Well, Dr. Lynch seems to have it up and running and is very excited to see what the girl will do," He peaked down the hall again to make sure no one was there.

"I need you to keep an eye on Kenyon and the doctor, try to make sure they don't make any more moves toward the girl. She'll be very unstable at the moment. If she's engaged in combat again, she might lose herself,"

"What does that mean?" Finn was getting really tired of all the cryptic talk. "What is happening to her?"

"It means that with every inhuman action she takes she becomes less human, less in control of her actions. She'll become a danger to herself and others rather fast,"

"What use is that? If she's not in control, how can they use her to kill," Another sigh could be heard through the phone.

"You don't understand. If she loses whatever humanity she has left, she'll just keep killing and then they'll cancel her. Better a weapon used and destroyed then used against them. And with X-23 dead, they can use her DNA to create more"

Now Finn understood. "That's why they created Kenyon! To kill her once she was done if they couldn't get her back under control" It was like a lightbulb went on in his head. It was all starting to make sense.

"Exactly. With Kimura and Kenyon working together with the state she'll be in, she'll be dead before anyone realizes. My guess is that they're trying to make her lose it at the school. We probably have about two weeks max if they don't make her fight again, before she loses it herself,"

"Alright, I'll try to stall," Finn told the other man on the phone. Something that had been bothering him through this conversation had to be asked though before they parted ways again. "How do you know so much about them? About her?" Finn had agreed to work with the man, no questions asked, because he told him, he'd be saving lives. Not much else was told to him.

The man didn't like answering questions, but knew he'd eventually have to tell Finn who he was. Today was not that day though. "I'll tell you, but not today. You need to go help X-23 before it's to late," With that, the man hung up the phone on Finn. He stared down at his cellphone, his denim blue eyes getting lost in an old memory before looking out the window to his apartment. He needed to head to New York, that much was clear.


End file.
